Rain, rain, go away, come again in 15 minutes.

My alarm went off this morning at 4:30 and it was raining hard. I decided that I didn't feel like doing 7 miles in a downpour, so I attempted to go back to sleep. I couldn't fall back to sleep, and at about 4:55 it stopped raining. I did what runners do, I got up to run. It was 55 degrees and fairly breezy so I wore long sleeves, knowing that I would push them up after I warmed up.

I figured I could get 5 miles in and that would be good. It's my first run of the month and I've signed up for the July Speedwork Challenge so I knew I'd have to do some fartleks to get my speedwork in. I've got a couple of long distance races coming up and I haven't done structured speedwork in 30+ years so fartleks and "power miles," as Quadracool calls them, will have to do. I don't want to get injured before my races. I'm hoping that this challenge will put me at ease with doing speedwork.

I started my run with a quick cadence to get my legs used to moving a little quicker than normal. I don't want to get extra speed by over striding. After about 3/4 of a mile I put in a burst of speed until I reached the old greenhouse area. Then I relaxed and did another fartlek from the intersection to McDonalds. Shortly after I turned at the McDonalds it started to rain again. There was about 15 seconds of gentle rain and then it became a downpour. It rained hard for the rest of my run, about 3.5 miles worth. I kept throwing in fartleks, old school style, when I'd recover from the last and had objects out ahead that I could race towards.

The fartleks felt really good. I was afraid that my tight hips would object to the speedwork, but they actually seemed to loosen up and enjoy it. The last few fartleks were pretty ugly. My shoes and socks were totally soaked. I could feel the water squishing out with every step. It was like sprinting up hill with ankle weights on. I decided to take advantage of the last mile as a cool down mile and my legs were tired. A lot more tired than a regular 5 mile run. I'll give credit to the speedwork, but maybe a little credit goes to the "ankle weights.'

It was nice to see the average pace of the run, the pace of the miles that included the fartleks, and just to feel like I ran fast for a while.

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